Masayuki Hori
Masayuki Hori (堀 政行 Hori Masayuki) is one of the heroes of the series. He is the president of Roman Academy's drama club. Although he is very good at acting, his short height makes him unqualified for most lead roles and his amazing acting makes him stand out too much to play a side character. Therefore, he works behind the scenes painting sets and making props instead. Hori also works as Nozaki's assistant, drawing backgrounds for Let's Fall in Love in exchange for drama club scripts. Appearance Hori is a short young man with short brown hair that is usually styled up with wax. Naturally, his fringe gathers in the centre of his forehead. When asked by Kashima about why he chooses to spike his hair up, he stated that he prefers his hair spiked up since wearing his bangs down makes him look younger. Hori's school uniform consists of a blue shirt which is tucked into dark navy blue trousers. He wears a navy blue tie that is usually placed in his pocket when working but is taken out during school hours or when outside. He also leaves his top button undone with his sleeves being rolled up to his elbows. During the summer festival, he wore a plain blue shirt which was tucked into dark green pants. Personality Hori is very diligent when it comes to the drama club and never slacks off during rehearsals. On the outside he comes off as mature and polite, however, Hori has a short temper and is easily angered. This is shown through his violent conduct towards Kashima when she makes inappropriate comments or tries to skip club meetings - typically using physical force to get her to behave. Hori also has a slightly childish side. He has drawn briefs as beta markers on Nozaki's manga, enthusiastically discussed the former with Sakura, and talked about raw octopus with Kashima in the hot springs. Hori often compares Kashima's face with others and says that she is the most handsome after all. This is shown through his comparison of Mikoshiba's face to that of Kashima, and the fact that he is primarily attracted to womens' legs. When acting, Hori conducts himself composedly and supposedly peaks in a cool tone of voice, according to the Drama Club's members. He doesn't care about awards and makes plays aimed towards students; they aren't for the purpose of social criticism or to send a message. The plays he asks Nozaki to write for the club tend to have a prince character in them, and they tend to be romantic. Additionally, he is easily absorbed into plays when watching them, crying and laughing. Skills According to Nozaki and Sakura, Hori has a talent for drawing backgrounds due to his comprehensive understanding of perspective. He has given Nozaki a lesson on this, once. He is also a very skilled actor, according to Kashima, Sakura and much of the drama club. However, he prefers to be behind the scenes during his shows, as his height makes him unsuitable to play most main characters while his talent makes him too good and distracting to be just an ensemble member. Hori's carpentry skills are shown through the props he makes for the Drama Club. It is stated in the official fanbook that he has 'mastered the art of building stages'. Hori also has an excellent sense of spatial perception - the ability to note the size, shape, movement and orientation of objects in order to draw accurate buildings. History In elementary school, a female classmate gave Hori handmade chocolate that upset his stomach. Ever since then, he disliked handmade food. Despite claiming he won't eat anything handmade, he will still eat something handmade by someone he knows well. During the Valentines Day arc, Kashima secretly gave Hori handmade chocolates. It has been stated that even if she did not do it secretly, Hori would have still eaten it. According to Kashima, Hori is the person that brought her into the school with his superb acting. He had not known she was a girl, and apparently was surprised when he found out. After Kashima joined the drama club, Hori quit being an actor, claiming that the club had found the perfect main male character. He started to help make props and direct plays for the drama club, and he found that it was more interesting than acting, which led to him completely specializing in that aspect. Plot :Main Article: Masayuki Hori/Plot Relationships Yuu Kashima While Hori tends to be violent towards Kashima, particularly when she is disrupting the club activities, he appreciates her when she works hard and tries her best. Kashima is loyal and fond of Hori. Kashima cares about Hori's aspirations and goes out of her way to fulfill them. During the course of the series, Kashima has mistaken Hori for wanting to be a princess in a play and thought he wanted to wear feminine attire, such as blouses and skirts. On these occasions, Kashima has tried her best to support Hori by giving him feminine clothes or reassuring him that they are friends, however, Hori reacts badly, thinking that Kashima is making fun of him. In one episode Kashima gives a sleeping Hori a piggy-back ride while wearing a bull head. When Hori wakes up and sees Kashima take off the mask, reacting with a flustered look. While he thought it was a bit stupid he didn't forget about it and asked Nozaki to make their next play about a prince who gets transformed into a bull. Hori is also infatuated with Kashima's legs. Her legs are often described as "pretty legs girl", as Hori does not know the identity of the owner of the legs, although Kashima has been trying to convince him that "pretty legs girl" is actually her. A prominent aspect of their relationship is Hori's fondness of Kashima's face, shown by how he insists that Kashima is the most good-looking one, even compared to Mikoshiba and the attention towards her face. An example of this is when Kashima tries to get him to look at her legs, but Hori instead points out that her eyes look tired immediately, showing that he is able to notice differences to her face, due to frequent observation of her face. Umetarou Nozaki Nozaki was originally hired by Hori to create scripts for his drama club, and in exchange, Hori would draw backgrounds for his manga. They grew to be friends, and Hori usually confides in Nozaki and Sakura in his dealings with Kashima and the drama club. He also asks Nozaki alone for advice in drama club activities. Chiyo Sakura Hori has a good relationship with Sakura. Both are aware of each other's status as assistant, and he knows about her crush on Nozaki, but doesn't do anything to support the latter. He occasionally teaches Sakura how to draw backgrounds. Hirotaka Wakamatsu Hori knows that Wakamatsu is an assistant for Nozaki's manga, they tend to work together because they help during late night. Later, he recognizes him as the character model for Waka from Let's Fall in Love. Hori thinks that Wakamatsu dumb, weird and very close to Seo. They sport a senpai-kouhai type of friendship and occasionally hang out. Mikoto Mikoshiba Hori recognizes Mikoshiba as a close friend of Kashima and Nozaki, and as the character model for Mamiko from Let's Fall in Love; the latter association is so strong that he mistakenly addresses him as "Mami-koshiba". He genuinely believes that Mikoshiba has potential to be a good actor for his looks and hard work, but never pursued it for Mikoshiba's shyness. Hori hides his assistant position from him to keep Kashima from discovering about his manuscript deal with Nozaki. Yuzuki Seo Hori is not close to Yuzuki in any way. Seo would sometimes address him as "Hori-chan" in school, in which he'd remind her to call him "senpai". He considers her a normal but close friend of Kashima, a very close friend of Wakamatsu, and he recognizes her as the character model for Oze from Let's Fall in Love. Trivia * His birthday is on “Good Knee-High Socks” day which is celebrated in Japan. * Hori lives with his dad, his mom, and his younger brother who is also in high school. * In the 5th anniversary poll, Tsubaki mentioned that she has plans to include Hori's younger brother in the manga as 'a tall boy who wears glasses'. * In assisting Nozaki, he is in charge of backgrounds. * His hobbies are movie appreciation, watching plays and travelling. He spends his holidays watching movies. * He's good at memorizing roads, spatial perception and carpentry. His weakness is how easily he becomes intoxicated by alcohol. * His style of choice is the ordinary high school uniform. * His best subjects are mathematics and physics. He doesn't do well in Classic Literature. His elective subject is Calligraphy. * His favourite food is Pork Ramen. He does not like homemade cooking made by amateurs (especially sweets). * His ideal type of girl is a girl with nice legs. Kashima, who has Hori’s ideal face, style, and legs, can be considered Hori’s ideal girl. * He knows of Chiyo's feelings towards Nozaki. * After realizing that Mamiko's model was Mikoshiba, he occasionally calls Mikoshiba 'Mami-koshiba' by accident. * He ranked 2nd on the character popularity poll, according to the official fanbook. * As of Chapter 72 of the manga, he and Mikoshiba are the only characters that do not know that the other is an assistant of Nozaki. * In Chapter 87 he begins to question his feelings towards Kashima. * He is the only character, other than Chiyo and Nozaki, that is aware that Waka and Ose are modeled after Wakamatsu and Seo. However, Chiyo knows Ose is based off Seo. * Apparently, during his 3rd year of Middle School, he had met Kashima at an unknown train station when he had dropped something. At this point of time, he was still taller than her and she had called him onii-chan (a Japanese term used to refer to a male stranger who is slightly older than oneself). References Category:Characters Category:Males Category:Students Category:Main Characters